MD3PAD 61-63

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 02/02/2006:

> From your quotation, it seems to be "kitchen" rather than "pantry."

No it doesn't.

best

> But regardless, it shoots down my reckless guesswork. Nicely done,
> Heikki.
>
>
> On 1/26/06, Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Yes, 'dispens' means 'pantry' in 18th cent South African Dutch -
>> found this classification of household rooms:
>>
>> "In the eighteenth century it was customary for rooms to be named
>> according to their position relative to the front entrance. So the
>> first room behind the front door was usually named the voorhuis,
>> then came rooms to left or right, sometimes called front rooms
>> (voorkamers). There were rooms behind (agterkamers) and rooms to
>> the side (zijkamers). There could be an internal room (binnekamer),
>> or upper rooms (bokamers). Sometimes there was a large living room
>> (grote kamer) and small rooms (kamertjes, klijne kamers). The only
>> functional names were service rooms such as kitchen, pantry (dispens
>> or bottelarij) and cellar."
>>
>> http://www.museums.org.za/vassa/extract2.html
>>
>>
>> Heikki
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 26 Jan 2006 jbor at bigpond.com wrote:
>>
>>> The Vrooms are Dutch, and that's what *they* call it.
>>>
>>> best
>>>
>>> On 25/01/2006:
>>>
>>>> Sure, foreign language italics.  But dispens is not, to my knowlege,
>>>> slang in any language to mean dispensory.  But it's not far off.   
>>>> But
>>>> WHY (not necesarily a deep quest) is my question.
>>>>
>>>>> Dutch? Afrikaans?
>>>>>
>>>>>> Makes sense to me, but one wonders why Pynchon uses this word, in
>>>>>> italics even.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Dispensary? Something like a storeroom or cupboard?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Cornelius keeps elephant guns nearby to defend the honor of his
>>>>>>>> daughters. He keeps one in  "Dispens" out back? The word Dispens
>>>>>>>> is in
>>>>>>>> italics. What does it mean - outhouse?
>>>
>>
>